4 reasons Lagaan is Bollywood’s Kind of Blue

Miles Davies’ landmark album Kind of Blue is generally considered to be the one jazz album liked by people who generally avoid the genre.

More than fifty years after release it has a reputation founded on the timeless nature of the music. It’s jazz as it should be played – recognisable, coherent, but takes enough risks to avoid being staid.

Lagaan is only ten years old, but it’s Indian cinema’s Kind of Blue – one of the most recognisable examples of its genre. And here are four reasons why.

1. Lagaan consistently wins plaudits as a ‘quality’ Bollywood

Starting with its Oscar nomination, at that point only Indian cinema’s third, and building with every inclusion in a best of Bollywood list, the recognition for Lagaan continues to pile up.

And, for some, this critical approval really matters, going so far as to be the sole influence on what they choose to watch.

So Lagaan, along with a number of subsequent Aamir Khan productions, attracts the kind of people who don’t follow ‘Bollywood’ and sniffily laugh at Amitabh Bachchan’s singing (that is so a real life example).

2. Laagan hits some universal touch points

The film’s plot covers many familiar Bollywood bases – family ties, unrequited love, dreams of better things and so on – but it can also be boiled down to one, very familiar archetype.

A team of no-hopers overcome the odds to triumph. Is there a sporting film that doesn’t draw on this theme? A Hollywood example that springs immediately to mind is The Great Escape (like Lagaan, a sporting film but not a sporting film).

There are a number of Bollywood sports movies, including Aamir Khan’s own Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, though post-Lagaan it’s Iqbal and Chak de! India that I think of when I consider the ‘no-hopers’ mould, but it’s surely Lagaan that defines it.

Still on its recognisable theme, the down trodden versus their oppressors is usually a winner (and Lagaan scores highly here thanks to the eminently slapable British soldiers, with their smarminess set to full).

3. Lagaan was always aiming for greatness

The film’s tag line tells you all you need to know about where the film’s producers saw it within the canon of great films (not great Bollywood films, just great films).

The film’s own myth-making, aided by a ‘making of’ that was India’s first theatrically released documentary, tops up the impression that Aamir Khan was always aiming for greatness.

You only need to look at the team involved – among them A.R. Rahman (music) and Javed Akhtar (lyrics) – to know Aamir Khan was aiming high (and that’s before you get to his ‘perfectionist’ reputation).

The book uses Lagaan, along with Dil Se and Taal, as being emblematic of a sea change in Bollywood’s fortunes.

“From being an embarrassment, running around trees has become a cult statement.

“It is not we who have changed, it is the people who are looking at us who have. It could be at Deauville in France or at Marrakech in Morocco, or anywhere else for that matter, the world has decided to take our movies to heart.”

– Amitabh Bachchan in 2004.

Indian Popular Cinema, on my reading list and promising to be an enjoyable, lightly academic read, has this to say about Lagaan.

“[Lagaan] quickly reminded sceptics of the power Hindi popular films are capable of exercising over the masses without sacrificing quality.

Deservedly, Lagaan is already being talked of as a film in the exalted league of Mother India (1957), Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Sholay (1975).”

The irony of this post is that Lagaan is not quite my favourite Aamir Khan film (that’s a toss up between Rang de Basanti and 3 Idiots), but it is his most important film, and one of the reasons for that is that it’s Bollywood’s Kind of Blue.

Lagaan is being celebrated this week by The Bollywood Fan and his Lagaan Week, which is now in its fourth year. Go visit his blog to read more about this great film.

3 responses to “4 reasons Lagaan is Bollywood’s Kind of Blue”

Thank you so much for this post! You’ve touch on some great points here, and while I agree with all, I specifically think #3 is one that’s so rare in Bollywood. Not from a goal-setting standpoint, but from that of setting a goal and going *all out* to accomplishing it, leaving no stone unturned. If there’s one big lesson learned from the film, that reminder alone is a big one.

You’ve also cited some great sources here, thank you again (and for the link too!), and shall look forward to featuring it soon!

Thanks for the comment. I did wonder if I was stretching that point a little – particularly with the Rahman reference, as his output seems to be fairly prolific. But the more I read about the attention to detail seen in Lagaan the more it fits with the drive to go all out for a goal that you mention.

Now my Lagaan post is done I’m looking forward to catching up with the other posts this year.